Presidential Management: The View from the Bureaucracy

• Published in: Presidential studies quarterly 1985-10, Vol.15 (4), p.768-781
• Main Author: Benze, James G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Administrative agencies; BUREAUCRACY; Business management; Civil service; Executive branch; Government bureaucracy; Human resources; Management; Management philosophies; MANAGERS AND MANAGEMENT; ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, NONEXECUTIVE; Political appointments; Presidency; PRESIDENCY (ALL NATIONS); Presidential powers; Support personnel
• ISSN: 0360-4918; 1741-5705

This article investigates presidential management from the perspective of the group most closely affected by it — the career bureaucracy. Using data gathered from a series of questionnaires mailed to career bureaucrats during the last year of the Carter administration, the article presents assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of presidents' current movement to exert greater control over the implementation of policy. Examining presidential management across several dimensions (reorganization, staffing, political appointees, and budgeting), the article reaches two important conclusions. Perhaps the most important finding is the bureaucracy's general level of acceptance of the president's role as manager. However, the second conclusion is that certain management techniques (reorganization, budgeting, selective of transfers) are in some instances viewed negatively by the career bureaucracy. Instead, the career bureaucracy seems to favor applications of traditional administrative oversight (use of OMB to conduct budgetary oversight rather than the adoption of superficially important budgeting techniques). Each of these conclusions is of primary importance for future administrations attempting to exert control over their own programs.